Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

In its lawsuit, MALDEF contends that the new policies prevent thousands of people living legally in Texas from receiving standard licenses and that the Texas Legislature has not granted the DPS authority to exclude such persons, limit the terms of the licenses or change their appearance. Under state law, MALDEF contends, the DPS—as an agency appointed by the Governor—may only adopt rules as authorized by the Legislature.

The Texas Health and Human Services office on Yandell Street handled more than 11,000 cases in the year ended in May 2008 -- an estimated 2,000 more than the year before. Administrators at all 11 El Paso County offices, which administer Medicaid, food stamps and temporary assistance for needy families, are bracing for more requests.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh on Thursday toured a local office of the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that administers Medicaid, Food Stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, with the hope of encouraging staffers who have faced heavy caseloads under trying times.

Lawmakers gave universities authority to set their own tuition rates in 2003, when the state faced a $10 billion budget shortfall. Since then, tuition rates for a full-time course load have shot up an average of 53 percent statewide, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. At the University of Texas at El Paso in the past five years, tuition and fees have risen 57 percent.

The debate over children’s health care this year will be as arduous as ever, but so is the ante: More than 160,000 Texas children whose cash-strapped parents can’t get state help to pay medical expenses for maladies as common as chronic ear infections or as daunting as cancer treatment.

Some of the extra push this session is coming from Galveston, the storm-ravaged island that is struggling to recover from Hurricane Ike. And the continued expansion of tribal casinos just across the border in Oklahoma continues to attract more dollars from North Texas.

Facing a legislative committee short on patience and demanding answers, state prison officials offered few details Tuesday on why they have been unable to stop the flow of smuggled cell phones onto Texas' death row.

Gone were the lofty language and bold programs of his last State of the State address, two years ago – their wings clipped by an economic downturn and his own weakened stature in the Capitol. Gone are the billowing sails of budget surpluses and the strong wind of a GOP-dominated House.

He urged lawmakers to stick with the fiscal policies that have guided the state for the past six years and to boost spending on a few of his favorite programs, such as a job-relocation fund and cancer research. He also threw his support behind some proposals with appeal to social conservatives, whose support he would need to hold off a challenge from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in next year's Republican primary.

Duplication of expensive tests and critical decisions made without enough information are making the health care system “unsustainable and on a collision course to disaster,” said Deven McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology.

Making the appropriate investment in Medicaid can help reduce the number and frequency of hospital admissions by improving resident health, and increasing the capability of skilled nursing facilities themselves to successfully treat more complex medical conditions and incidents – at lower cost to taxpayers.

The losses, covering the period between July 1 and Nov. 30 of last year, likely understate the severity of the hit schools have taken, since they don't include losses in illiquid, hard-to-value investments that many schools have loaded up on. Schools warned that the declines could lead to cutbacks in financial aid.

Obama also instructed the Transportation Department to draw up new interim targets for mileage standards starting in 2012 that ensure new vehicles reach the 35 mile-a-gallon level set by Congress for 2020. He left intact Bush administration guidelines for 2011 models already being designed.

Texans might drive cars designed for California attitudes if federal regulators agree to permit state-by-state auto emissions standards, a prospect that emerged Monday in President Barack Obama’s first major environmental policy action.

In recent years, after Republicans won control of all statewide offices, and then both legislative chambers in 2003, another force has driven the state toward outside contracting, an ideological conviction that the private sector just does things more efficiently than the public — period.

The AP's review reveals one of the ironies of the bank bailout: The same executives who were at the controls as the banking system nearly collapsed are the ones the government is counting on to help save it.

Obama ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to re-examine whether California and other states should be allowed to impose tougher auto emission standards on carmakers to fight greenhouse gas emissions. The Bush administration had blocked the efforts by the states.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, said he would fight to make sure UTEP gets tier-one funding and that critical services such as health care for children aren't slashed as lawmakers wrestle over how to spend scant state dollars.

Presidio County has never seen the kind of fictional carnage that was filmed there for the movie, "No Country for Old Men." But if it ever does, Sheriff Danny Dominguez now has the gear to fight it, thanks to millions of dollars in state and federal grants for his virtually crime-free turf and that of other sleepy Texas border counties.

"So many people were so emotional about the coming of Barack Obama all around me, especially African-Americans, who held up cell phones so their children and grandchildren could hear these words as he took the oath," Shapleigh said.